Christopher strode towards his chosen target, papers in his inner breast pocket. He was as ready as he was going to be, which was still not as ready as he wanted. He had regrettably left his loaned quarterstaff hidden in a side street. Hopefully he could pick it up if all went according to plan. He had considered several approaches for activating the alarm, looking for a method that would prevent him from being skewered by Guards.

Sneaking inside unnoticed was not really a possibility, so Christopher first looked into whether he might be able to fool the Guards into raising the alarm themselves.

Christopher had hoped to somehow replicate the sound of one of the Giant Soul Alarms with a construction of his own, setting of the chain reaction from a safe place. He was attracted to this because it would prevent his own capture, and he only needed to fool one Alarm station to succeed. He ultimately had to give up on the idea, for he had neither the knowledge, money, materials, or time to attempt the creation of something that could be mistaken for the Giant Soul Alarm. Another problem was inconspicuously hauling such a construct into the proper place without drawing attention

Christopher eventually turned to impersonation. He had seen the power of acting with confidence, of acting like you belonged. He first thought about impersonating one of their superior officers, or even pretending that he was a guard himself. He decided against that plan. Lumen was not so big that an unfamiliar new colleague would raise no questions. There were many points of failure in such an attempt.

Christopher ultimately decided on something a bit more believable. He would pose as someone from the Lumen Constructors, ordered to check on the state of all the Soul Alarms. He had spent quite some time making a fake, but official looking document, official looking seal included. He had found examples of orders commissioned by the Lumen Guards in one of the books in the library. That book was dated, but he hoped that it could fool a low ranked guard for a simple inspection.

Forging such a document had been a difficult process, requiring a lot of research and practice. Christopher had managed to buy the stationery and equipment he needed for only a single silver. He should now also be able to quickly forge the documents he needed for his plan on the start of the next loop. Hopefully he would not need them by succeeding this time. ‘Yeah right, wouldn’t that be nice.’

Christopher now wore some simple work clothes that someone at the Lumen Constructors would wear, some neat but used ones for just three silver coins. Christopher proceeded towards his chosen target, which was a Soul Alarm near the western part of the wall. The Guard team there had seemed to be a little less professional than at the other Soul Alarms during his observations. To him they seemed to be more lax than others.

Hopefully he could get away if they were suspicious at his disguise and forged documents. One sure problem was how he was going to get away in the direct aftermath of activating the alarm. He had not found any reliable way to escape. Running away seemed challenging and potentially dangerous for his health.

He would try to get detained safely. They should quickly learn that there really was an attack only minutes later after all. At that point, they would probably just let him go? Christopher winced at that part of the plan. He just hoped that they would be more occupied by the monsters by then. In a pinch, he could always fall back on [Bookmark]. Christopher had been dreading this day, being allowed to skip it seemed rather appealing, like running away from his responsibilities.

The battlements were now in sight, and Christopher projected an outwards confidence as he walked up to the battlements. He had not even been spotted yet as he neared the wall. Once he entered the offshoot path that led to the Soul Alarm, he finally saw the male guard at the entryway perk up. This guard was burly and had bushy eyebrows peeking out under his helmet

Christopher confidently crossed the last few meters. “Good afternoon, I am here for the scheduled inspection of the Soul Alarm. It should only take a minute.”

The guard looked at him with an irritated expression.

“Great, do it quickly then.”

“Right, thank you.”

‘What the fuck, that is all! There is no scheduled inspection dumbass. ‘

Christopher was kind of pissed, the guard could have asked a few questions at least, he did not even have to pull out his letter. So much time spent on forging that document and thinking of what to say. At least Christopher did need those skills for the next loop, he reminded himself.

He entered the dome like fortification inside the wall, the entryway guard following close behind. It was a rather small space, mostly taken up by the metal cylinder that was the Soul Alarm. He saw the other guard sit on a chair by a viewing slot, looking out over the plains, the man’s eyes quickly scanned him before moving back to the viewing slot. This second guard was a wiry man, a thin moustache above his lip. He looked tired and disinterested, which was perfect.

The room was rather small, a big portion taken up by the Soul Alarm, which was placed at the inner side. That side was open, showing the still peaceful Lumen. A cone on top of the cylinder was angled towards Lumen as well, assumedly to direct the sound more effectively towards the city. The metal lidded cylinder was certainly massive up close. ‘This thing must weigh a few tons’

“Let’s make it quick” the guard said impatiently.

“It should only take a minute or two.” Christopher responded, to which the guard grumbled.

‘So far so good, now where is the infusion point?’ He started examining the Soul Alarm all around. The Guard with the bushy brows standing behind him, watching him like a hawk. Christopher was nervous as hell now that he had gotten this far. ‘They are really going to hate me in a few minutes.’

Christopher managed to identify the piece of metal that needed to be infused. The construct had three clear protrusions at which the Soul Heat could be infused by different people. Hopefully he would be enough on his own.

He made a show of touching different parts of the Soul Alarm, making the occasional superfluous comment. “Integrity looks good.” “No warping of the metal.”

The time of the invasion should be really close now, ten minutes max, probably less. His heart was beating rapidly at this point, trying to work himself up to doing the actual deed. ‘Here goes nothing’

Christopher prepared the mental image that worked so well for him, and touched the relevant piece of metal. He poured in a good 75% of his Soul Force as Soul Heat in an instant, wanting to make sure that it was enough. The metal quickly turned a soft shade of red.

It took only a split second for realization to set in for the guard shadowing him closely. Christopher jumped into motion, booking it out of the building despite his intention, not even waiting for the hiss of the Soul Alarm to start.

He was halfway to the door when the hissing boomed outward towards the city. It was loud but not deafening, the sound properly directed towards Lumen by the cone, sparing his ears. Just as he was about to pass through the door and make his escape, he was suddenly tackled to the ground from behind. ‘Well shit!’

It was all a jumble as he fell hard to the ground. ‘Should have blinded them with Soul Light.’ He tried to get away, but the guard with the moustache then reached and grabbed him, yanking his arm painfully behind his back which quickly stopped his own struggling.

The guard was pinning him to the ground with great force and Christopher knew better than to struggle. It did not stop the guard with the bushy eyebrows from kicking him in his side though. He just needed to hold out for a few more minutes and then hopefully the hostility would somewhat evaporate with the first shrieks of the Blight.

He heard some Guards outside already yelling and running up the wooden path, entering only twenty second later. The other guards meanwhile were discussing what to do with voices full of panic. Looks of disbelief marred the faces of the newcomers. One of the new entrants yelled with a frantic voice.

“What the blight has happened, please tell me this is not what I think it is!”

The bushy browed guard pinning him spoke to Christopher with murder in his voice.

“Why have you done this? explain yourself!”

“The Blight is coming, there was no time to convince you. You will see soon; the monsters will fly over the wall in mere minutes.”

The mustached guard spoke with a wheezy voice. “Horrol shit, how the blight did this guy get the alarm off by his lonesome?”

“I have no idea, he somehow did it by himself in just a second. I was watching him the whole time. Quickly help me cool it with Soul Frost “

They were too late, he first of the other Soul Alarms suddenly hissed in the distance, the chain reaction now getting started.

“Shit, Captain Merrem is going to have our heads for this. You know the type of blight storm that lasts exercise caused.” The mustached guard responded. “First help me freeze this.”

He and one of the newcomers infused the Soul Alarm with Soul Frost which quickly brough down the noise, before stilling the alarm completely. Christopher meanwhile believed that he heard more than one other alarm blaring already.

The Bushy browed guard spoke to one of the newcomers. “Limmo, get to the transponder and report it as false alarm! Hurry!”

Christopher’s head was now turned away, but apparently this Limmo did not perform well under pressure. Still standing around uncertainly after the order. “Snap out of it. Fine, just hold this guy then, I will report to command myself.

Christopher was fine with them trying, it was too late to stop the chain reaction. His plan was now in motion and the reports of actual sightings would prove him right soon enough. They would soon be thankful for his early warning.

The third guard moved to hold Christopher down, taking over from his previous captor, who ran off to make his report.

“You, explain yourselves! What are you trying to accomplish here?” the mustached man asked? Christopher’s arm got yanked, the new captor even more violent, it felt as if is arm was close to snapping. Christopher could bear it as long as they did not kick or hit his head.

He might have to act quick in the coming confusion to get away from here. He had no desire to be bound while all hell broke loose around him.

Christopher lay pinned there as the minutes ticked by. The guards conversing with frantic voices. Any struggling from him would definitely break his arm. ‘How much longer now?’ Christopher wondered. It was difficult to tell how much time had passed, but it felt like an eternity to him. Christopher tried to answer the angry guard’s questions in the beginning, but he stopped when it only led to harder pushing.

Eventually the other guard returned, and from the sound of it he had brought some friends with him. Christopher couldn’t see because his head was pinned the other way.

The guard with the bushy brows had also returned for he spoke to the newcomers behind him. “Bind him!”

‘Shit, I need a few more moments.’ Surely it could not be much longer now. Christopher couldn’t help but struggle in the Guards grip. But it was all for nothing as something was clicked onto his hands behind his back. That was going to complicate things. This was really getting away from him, he would now actually welcome the first shrieks, as terrifying as they were.

“Limmo, Kindel, you stay in the Alarm tower. The rest, help me escort the captive to the Dungeon. Captain’s orders”

Christopher’s heart sank into his stomach when he was pulled up on his feet, moments later a sack was pulled over his head, obstructing most of his sight.

It was at this moment that Christopher started entertaining the thought that had eaten him up over the last few minutes.

‘The invasion is not starting yet is it….’

It seemed that the changes on this loop had somehow extended to the Blight as well.

‘I am so fucking screwed.’